Friday, 26 June 2009

Money quotes from Peter Bushnell

The BERL report into the social costs of alcohol doesn't look like it meets the "normal standards you would expect"

"I think the points they’re [Crampton and Burgess] making are sound about adding the costs of production into the cost of it, and not counting any benefits. In a market if you’re selling something that people are prepared to pay for, then they’ve at least got that much benefit, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought the stuff. So if you exclude the benefits then you’re clearly only looking at one side of the story."

“I can see the point being made in the [Crampton and Burgess] article – it [BERL report] looks pretty shonky"

"Geoffrey’s reputation is reduced [if] he’s putting weight on something that actually doesn’t stack up." [If the reputation of the Right Honorable Sir Geoffrey Palmer is hurt by relying on the BERL report, what of that of its authors?]

"What we’re saying is it’s your [Palmer's] reputation that’s at risk here. It doesn’t reflect well on the Law Commission if it ... backs [work], that doesn’t have a sound basis."